The history of this enterprise is of great interest to me for several (mostly but not entirely economic) reasons..... it offers scope to examine and consider:

- the relationship between trade and the state. Who was helping whom and for what reward and at what risk?
- some early lessons in governance. How did this entity operate and what can we learn?
- certainly a lot about agent principal issues and their resolution.
- more broadly, incentives. What does it take to undertake these endeavours?

In coming posts I shall document thoughts and findings.

I have used a good deal of Keay's material in these notes. Keay's writing at times reaches great heights. He writes with a flourish that may not always work but when it does it is both piercing and slightly humourous.



Here is a good example of the latter:

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Keay's inspired description (the book is sprinkled with such tracts... if more sparsely perhaps than one would wish in the more dense thickets of Indian history) of Warren Hastings... hero and villain depending on the century one takes one's perspective from and whether from the company or the company's view...

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Keay notes that the temptation to conflate the history of the East India Company and the origins of the British Raj is both considerable and unhelpful in respect of understanding.....

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The incentives needed to get men out on the high seas where death rates were high and originated from numerous causes, risks of failure were colossal and consequences were extreme posed big problems. Monitoring what was happening from half a world away was equally tough.... Keay gives us insights on how it worked...

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I have used Keay's quotes from his sources and then translated the figures to today's NZ dollars to give an idea of how much capital was involved....

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Just how big were the riches in todays terms an how did this investment perform. Taking data for the period 1657 when Cromwell introduced the charter limiting the monopoly and cutting back some of the power the company had enjoyed, I have, below converted share prices into todays terms and expressed them in New Zealand dollars, with a little smoothing. The point is to gain a general idea only and for that purpose the data is sufficient.....

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Modern commentators are inclined to believe they are the first to document the battles for corporate control which takeovers in the modern era epitomise and that there is something new about the way such wars are waged. Wrong..... as the history of the East India Company shows.



In the late 1600s....

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